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When asked how long the gruesome scars on his face will take to
heal after his suspected dioxin poisoning three months ago,
Ukraine's president-elect Viktor Yushchenko says they will mend
alongside the resurrection of the Ukrainian nation.

The wounds inflicted by the country's bruising election,
however, look certain to fester well into the new year.

"We understand very well that the new government will have to
tread between two dangers - not to show any bloodlust and resort to
repression, while not allowing top figures of the old guard to have
any part in shaping policy," Mr Yushchenko told Ukrainian
television this week.

After winning an unprecedented third-round run-off against prime
minister Viktor Yanukovich by an 8-percentage-point margin, and
despite the emphatic support of the huge crowds who made Ukraine's
Orange Revolution, Mr Yushchenko will find his path strewn with
obstacles.

This week, his opponent submitted 27 volumes of evidence to the
Supreme Court supporting his claim that the elections did not
conform to constitutional norms and were accompanied by widespread
fraud. On Thursday the court rejected some of these complaints, but
Mr Yanukovich has promised to produce a further 96 volumes
detailing electoral malpractice.

He has also refused to step down. As soon as the new president
is inaugurated, Mr Yanukovich will have to go, but his refusal to
bow to the inevitable points to the energy with which he will lead
opposition to the new government. He can take encouragement from
three sources.

First, he presided over a regime of rampant corruption that has
made fortunes for a favoured few. Some of these oligarchs will back
him to undermine any attempt by Mr Yushchenko to claw back their
ill-gotten wealth.

Second, Mr Yanukovich's electoral support is highly concentrated
in the east and south. These are virtual no-go areas for Mr
Yushchenko, who is vulnerable to the threat of greater regional
autonomy.

Finally, there is Russia. This week it came down firmly on Mr
Yanukovich's side, after the Kremlin announced its backing for his
challenge to the election result. On Wednesday, Mr Yushchenko's
close political ally, millionaire firebrand Yulia Tymoshenko,
conducted a live television phone-in with viewers in Donetsk, the
industrial capital of eastern Ukraine.

Dressed in the colours of the local football team, Ms Tymoshenko
deftly fielded hostile questions for nearly an hour. Only a small
crowd gathered to protest against her presence, however. This
suggests that the mafia boss of Donetsk, oil and metals magnate
Rinat Akhmetov, may have ordered a stop to demonstrations in the
region and could be seeking a compromise.

Ms Tymoshenko echoed Mr Yushchenko's promise not to start a
re-division of the spoils of Ukraine's corrupt privatisation
program, and stated that political opposition under the new
government would not be persecuted.

"I am sure Viktor Yanukovich will find a place in parliament -
the opposition will not be jailed or have their heads cut off," she
said, referring to the murder of a journalist four years ago after
his outspoken criticism of the regime.

From the first days of the Orange Revolution, it has been clear
that the crowds have not been driven by blind faith in Mr
Yushchenko.

Under the surface is a cauldron of discontent born of the
poverty and injustice ordinary Ukrainians have experienced since
independence in 1991. For many, the revolution's victory is payback
time. They will not be happy if the powerful business interests in
Mr Yushchenko's leadership team use the revolution to line their
own pockets.

In the past weeks, elements of the crowd have insisted on their
independence from Mr Yushchenko, refusing to end their blockade of
presidential buildings or to dismantle the tent city in Kiev. The
radical youth movement Pora! (It's time!) has been bitterly
disappointed at Mr Yushchenko's lenience towards outgoing President
Leonid Kuchma.

Mr Yushchenko will have to walk a tightrope between these
interests, which suggests more instability for Ukraine - at least
in the medium-term.